I knew that outside of the California/Silicon Valley bubble, I would not encounter naysayers, tech startup groupies, or any other silliness.

Like my terrible co-worker in the beginning, too many of those people would have prevented me from making progress.

And since I knew almost no one there, I would be forced to develop a completely new social circle.

Even better, rather than being “another guy with a CS degree who’s starting a tech business in California,” I would be “the random foreigner who’s starting an online business in Korea, while doing part-time acting and voiceover gigs.”

Which one sounds more memorable?

Years after that, I had left Asia and was spending most of my time in Europe and South America.

It was a bit of a cultural shock at first, as I realized that most people do not actually work non-stop all day and all weekend.

So I had to re-examine my assumptions: was it necessary to work 65-70 hours per week, every week?

Or was I an inefficient control freak who was pursuing the wrong goals?

An environmental change can force reality up to the surface.

Got Stock Pitches?

The same is true of coming up with investment ideas for stock pitches or case studies: you’ll often get the best insights from completely random sources you had never considered before.

Maybe you’ll go on a trip, find a business or service that seems ridiculous to you but which is highly successful in that region…. and then you’ll start thinking about how it could apply to the markets you analyze.

And then you stumble upon a great company you had never even considered.

If you could generate great ideas solely from your existing knowledge and experiences, wouldn’t you already have a basket of excellent ones?

Negative Environments Help You as Well

A neutral environment – a location, firm, or routine that’s no better or worse but simply different – might introduce you to new ideas or people.

But an adverse environment could also assist you by introducing constraints that enhance your thinking and problem-solving abilities.

It might also force you to re-examine your daily routines and what you “need” to be doing vs. what you are doing.

On one recent trip to South America, the wi-fi in my room was so awful that I had to go downstairs to get a decent signal.

That was super-annoying at first, but after a few days I realized the benefit: that constraint forced me to stop browsing the Internet and checking email constantly.

You might want to move into any other group, even if it’s not M&A – an industry group, DCM, or whatever else has an opening.

Why?

For one, you might get experience that can be spun into sounding more relevant (“This group had a lot of M&A exposure, so I figured I could learn more there” / “A lot of the debt deals were related to acquisitions, which would give me more exposure”).

Also, you never know whom you will encounter in other groups.

Maybe the MD in one group knows the M&A team well and can put in a good word for you; maybe someone else there can help you make the move with a connection he/she has.

And finally, switching groups might make you question your basic assumption:do you want to move into the M&A group specifically?

Or are you just looking for a change outside of ECM?

If it’s the latter, your work is done… for now.

Example #2: From Venture Capital to Startup… with a Few Bumps Along the Way

If you’re at a dead end, you might just want to find any job at a normal, non-finance company – even if it’s unrelated to sales or business development.

That move helps you in the four areas I mentioned above:

New Ideas: Are there other companies out there you haven’t considered, but which you should think about? Why limit yourself to only portfolio companies or venture-backed startups? What about other upstart businesses that need help?

New Positioning: Now it seems like you have more of an interest in working at a real company that makes tangible products and services.

New People/Network: You can tap into a broader network at almost any mid-sized-to-large company and uncover option you had missed before.

New Constraints: You’ll probably get frustrated with the bureaucracy and big-company nonsense in a few months, which will really motivate you to exit to a startup instead.

About the Author

Brian DeChesare is the Founder of Mergers & Inquisitions and Breaking Into Wall Street. In his spare time, he enjoys memorizing obscure Excel functions, editing resumes, obsessing over TV shows, traveling like a drug dealer, and defeating Sauron.

PE firms generally do not care about PhD degrees because they just want people with deal experience. A PhD would be far more helpful in academia, or in something like a quant role at a hedge fund (if you did a PhD in math or physics), or in something like a biotech VC fund (if you have a PhD in something related).

Well… what jobs are you aiming for? It’s tough to say what your prospects are without knowing what industry you want to work in or what you want to do. If you want to work in PE or VC, you need more than a PhD – firms want to see deal and investment experience, not academic degrees. A PhD in biology might be helpful at a VC firm that invests in biotech, but it sounds like you’ve done something different.

To seek a change in environment, I am in South-East Asia, doing an internship at the infrastructure division of a Big 4. The role was advertised as Corporate Finance, but honestly, all I’ve been doing is general research of market, making slides, and formatting proposals. What can I do to get associates to open up to me, and give me some exposure to project finance/modelling?

Aside from social skills, is there anything else I can learn from this environment, that can help increase my changes at landing a penultimate IB internship position next Summer?

I would just ask the Associates if there’s any way you can save them time, or if not, if there’s anything they’re doing that you could at least look so you can learn more and be more useful to them in the future. You can try to “befriend” them, but this is highly dependent on the workplace, i.e. if you have after-work events and other ways to actually speak with them in a social setting.

Even if the internship doesn’t go well, you can still make it part of your story and stand out a lot like that since few others will have this experience. Also, this article may be helpful:

I look forward to making my own story of ‘one reader who networked his way into a bulge-bracket bank coming from a Big 4 firm’……and even beyond.

This article has completely changed my mind-set particularly coming from a country (Malawi) considered to have very limited resources. I believe we have unlimited resources only yet to be exploited. The only thing I personally did not consider to a greater extent, was the idea that, an adverse environment could also assist me by introducing constraints that enhance my thinking and problem-solving abilities.

I adopted the change of environment strategy earlier on and have found myself in an adverse environment as you have described so aptly, except that my boss is a serial psychopathic abuser. (On the professional side, your courses at BIWS have been a life saviour!) Apart from this, I’m working on my own start-up as well and discovered new interest in programming/data science and machine learning as well! Your article echos what I seek out – no automated life mode, seek new interesting challenges and always look for silver linings (:

Great post! It was easy relating to it because I feel like I’m starting to get into that rut of a routine you mention in the beginning. Before it gets to a point where I have no choice but to break out into a new environment, I’d like to start making baby step changes while I’m ahead. Would love to know your thoughts on whether that’s smart if my environment isn’t restrictive but is starting to feel too cozy – afraid it might be a harder change to make once I get too comfortable.

Thanks! I think it’s tough to say without knowing the specifics of your situation, but change is always good. So if you feel yourself becoming comfortable, yes, definitely consider a small change to test the waters and then go from there.

Great article, I really enjoyed reading it. I can also vouch for the upscale gym tactic (weather any of your previous tactics worked or not), the amount of people you meet is definitely worth way more than the monthly fee.

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